Stents, grafts, stent-grafts, vena cava filters, expandable frameworks, and similar implantable medical devices are radially expandable endoprostheses which are typically intravascular implants capable of being implanted transluminally and enlarged radially after being introduced percutaneously. These endoprostheses may be implanted in a variety of body lumens or vessels such as within the vascular system, urinary tracts, bile ducts, fallopian tubes, coronary vessels, secondary vessels, etc. Some endoprostheses such as stents may be used to reinforce body vessels and to prevent restenosis following angioplasty in the vascular system. Endoprostheses may be self-expanding, expanded by an internal radial force, such as when mounted on a balloon, or a combination of self-expanding and balloon expandable (hybrid expandable).
Insertion of an implantable medical device can be facilitated by the attachment of one or more cutting tools to the radially compressed device. These tools, frequently called atherectomy devices or athertomes, typically comprise a blade, cutting bit, burr, and/or other surface protrusions on at least a portion of the flexible drive shaft, catheter, or stent. Athertomes can be contained within flexible sheaths to protect the walls of the blood vessels from the rotation of the implantable medical device. Athertomes can be attached to medical devices including but not limited to stents, balloons, grafts, catheters, and sheaths. Examples of such devices include Barath, U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,024, Shiber, U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,579, Simpson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,040; and Auth et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,407, incorporated herein by reference. The atherectomy device is typically navigated to the site of the disease by a delivery system such as a mechanically manipulated guide wire to the site of the disease, and then the athertome is advanced over the guide wire to the site.
The navigation of the guide wire through the blood vessel can be a slow and tedious process, requiring great skill. It can be difficult to precisely control the atherectomy device satisfactorily. Part of this difficulty arises from rigidity of the blades which do not bend as readily as balloons, stents, wires and other components of implantable devices when traversing the wending paths of body vessels.
The art referred to and/or described above is not intended to constitute an admission that any patent, publication or other information referred to herein is “prior art” with respect to this invention. In addition, this section should not be construed to mean that a search has been made or that no other pertinent information as defined in 37 C.F.R. §1.56(a) exists.
All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well only for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72. The abstract is not intended to be used for interpreting the scope of the claims.